Page Template option absent from Admin page for Pages

did you mark your new template as such so WordPress would recognize it? You have to add a php comment in your template.

e.g.:

<?php
/*
Template Name: Page_no_sidebar
*/
?>

Yes, I included the comment for the template name. Is there anything else I need to do for it to be recognized so it appears in the Page Template dropdown menu?

I guess I’m just puzzled as to why the Page Template info does not appear unless I modify edit-page-form.php. I don’t like messing with the files in wp-admin unless I’m absolutely positive that it’s necessary.

You need both the default page.php AND another Page template to be present in your theme folder for the dropdown to appear.

Yes, I have had both the page.php and the custom template in the theme folder.

I just refreshed the admin page and it finally showed up! I guess it just took awhile to recognize all the files in the theme folder? Anyway, I’m happy that now my mucking about with the theme can continue and I appreciate the feedback.

You need both the default page.php AND another Page template to be present in your theme folder for the dropdown to appear.

Why is that? I’m just curious because I run into this frequently and it’s a pain to create a page.php template I don’t need just to use a custom page template.

Themes don’t technically need anything but index.php in them, so the only time page functionality in a theme is enabled, is when you physically have a page.php template file.

It’s like a switch that tells wordpress “its OK to treat pages like pages now”

Once that switch is enabled, all the other funky page stuff follows, like the ability to set custom templates.

Huh. Interesting. Still… it would make sense for pages to already be treated as pages anyway. I appreciate you clearing that up for me.

I guess the question is how? – where do you send pages unless there’s a page.php?

WordPress is basically exercising some error-handling, becuase pages can easily exist without having a custom template applied. What to do with them?

I’m sure you can be trusted to give all your pages custom templates, but can everyone else? – where to send the pages that don’t have custom templates?

so, basically wordpress ensures that you must have a default fallback state, before allowing you to customise pages… it’s actually a pretty good idea that reduces the possibility of php errors through user accident.

oh… and … happy to be of service.

… I can’t find code anywhere that backs up this assertion that a page.php file must exist for Page Templates to work. If page.php does not exist, then the fallback would normally be to index.php.

Frankly, if this is true then I’d consider it a bug, but I also can’t find where that “switch” gets flipped. Any clues?

This comes from observed behaviour, not code trawling.

“If page.php does not exist, then the fallback would normally be to index.php”

Thats what I said.

..however, it doesn’t seem possible to make use of page templates without page.php… indicating that wordpress checks for page.php before allowing the use of templates.

that’s a kind of “switch” which turns on pages, as well as associated page-based functionality, like custom templates.

You can check that your theme is actually selected.

I uploaded a new theme and simply overwrote the files that were there, WordPress was using the theme, but if i went to the Theme selection screen, none was selected.

So check if its actually selected, my Custom template drop down menu returned when i did this.